General Knowledge Literary awards

Literary awards

Sahitya Akademi Award • This award is annually conferred on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit in any of the major Indian languages recognised by the Sahitya Akademi,New Delhi. • The award was established in 1954. It comprises of a plaque (designed by the Indian film-maker Satyajit Ray) and a cash prize of ` 100,000. • The purpose of the award is to recognize and promote excellence in Indian writing and also acknowledge new trends which involve a 12 month selection process. • 2015 Sahitya Akademi awards were awarded in 23 languages which include six books of short stories, six of poetry, four novels, two books each of essays, criticism and plays and a memoir. The winner in Bangla was to be announced later The Winners Kula Saikia (Assamese); BK Brahma (Bodo); Dhian Singh (Dogri); Cyrus Mistry (English); Rasik Shah (Gujarati); Ramdarash Mishra (Hindi); KV Tirumalesh (Kannada); Bashir Bhadarwahi (Kashmiri); Uday Bhembre (Konkani); Man Mohan Jha (Maithili); KR Meera (Malayalam); Kshetri Rajen (Majipuri); Gupta Pradhan (Nepali); Bibhuti Pattanaik (Odia); Jaswinder Singh (Punjabi); Madhu Acharya; Ashawadi (Rajasthani); RS Awasthi (Sanskrit); Rabilal Tudu (Santhali); Maya Rahi (Sindhi); A Madhavan (Tamil);Volga (Teluge); Shamim Tariq (Urdu); Arun Khopkar (Marathi);Jnanpith Award • It is a literary award in India along with the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship is one of the two most prestigious literary honours in the country. • The award was instituted in 1961 and a criterion to win the award requires that the Indian citizen writes in one of the 22 languages listed in Schedule Eight of the Indian constitution. The award is presented by the Bharatiya Jnanpith, a trust founded by the Sahu Jain family, the publishers of the newspaper The Times of India. • It carries a cheque for ` 11 lakh, a citation plaque and a bronze replica of Saraswati.